EvolutionM - Mitsubishi Lancer and Lancer Evolution Community

Hey everybody,
I'm pretty new here so I apologize if I am posting in the wrong section, but I'm still finding my way around :D

To start my story off, I never thought I would buy a mitsubishi in my life! Until I brought my lance home! Was always more of a Subie guy but I am now in love with this thing!! I recently got into cars about a year and a half ago when my dad gave me his '93 legacy and I realized how interesting mechanics are, since then I have enrolled at my local community college for Automotive Technology and I am learning great new things about cars, getting to work on cars hands on for several hours every class!

I noticed my Brothers girlfriends had a cool lookin lancer out front and decided to ask about it. Found out it was her cousins and got to find out a lot about it. He said he was going to donate it and of course I decided to act on this car and take it off of his hands for him. Once I finally got it towed up to my house, I right away got to work on it.

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps0bfdf45c.jpg
Here it is the first day I got the car towed home :,)

He gave it to me for $700! Included 2x 10" subs on 250w in the trunk, upgraded stereo, K&N short ram intake, RRM lightweight pulley, 2 sets of Halo headlights( idk why, they are the same?) an HID kit(which will be used for foggys) and best of all: 2 sets of rims on tires!! 17" and 18"!!

This car hadn't run in over a year, worst part was he filled up the tank right before it died on him! And now begins my journey with lance :)

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...psadfc50fe.jpg

Got him home on a sunny Saturday morning and got to working, figured out the right CV axle joint was broken so I swapped out the axle! Being the noob that I was it took 4-5 hours and started thunderstorming half way through but I trooped it out and got it done! Then I changed the oil and changed the filter and swapped out the battery. And voila! Miraculously the engine ran! On year old gas, it stuttered like a b***h and I had to restart it every 5 minutes on my way to shell! Put some newer gas in the mix and filled the tires and had me a new car to break in :) drove about 100 miles just to kill gas(sorry Mother Earth) and then it was off to inspection!!I took it over to flagship, and on my way(mind you this is the first time this car has even moved in over a year) I get pulled over by a cop telling me the car reeked of weed -_-so he searched it, and started talking to me about his "new" honda accord he paid $2500 for and was trying to show off about how it only has 170k, lol he left after I told him the deal i got on this car :D
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps34fdfca9.jpg
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...psc5f8265c.jpg

Failed inspection!! I had to replace both outer tie rods, rotors, brake pads, all 4 motor mounts and fix the crack in my windshield! Did it all myself, however it was my first time doing ANY of these procedures! And managed to get it through inspection the day before my 30 day temp tags expired!! :D

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...psae9705f8.jpg
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps6ef00170.jpg
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps3f50d5ec.jpg

All was well until about a week ago, my radiator blew up! And you will see in the pictures it got my bay a little messy so once I've got some free time I'll get in there and make it pretty again! I'll hopefully get a video up of my friend towing me home about 15 miles with his 2.5 cj jeep using a steel cable haha. Not the best of ideas but we did what had to be done!

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...psbb64be77.jpg
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...psa21a8cf4.jpg
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...psaec86d94.jpg

With all this done! It was time to make my baby start to look good! (And run cleaner) which is the point in my project now. Body kit was crap, huge cracks/breaks on rear bumper. Side skirts cracked all along both sides. Oem bumper was broken, fixed with duct tape! But after realizing how much body kits cost I decided I would give body work a shot, and honestly didn't come out too bad for another first time project! Bought a new front bumper however, because I can't stand the oem bumper/grill, so I swapped it out with a vFiber front cover and I now have to patch that up as well! Because I'm sure any of you know fiberglass bumpers are never perfect and it cracked and bent just trying to mount it flush! Although it's not perfect(yet) looks a lot better than before! Now I just need to patch up the side skirts and then off to dipping!!
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...psa52cd62f.jpg
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...psbd7b0073.jpg
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...psbaab6fb1.jpg
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps90feb4c1.jpg

Here is the new bumper and new fog lights! before I decided to take out the grill. All lights are on lol
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...pscc152959.jpg

My belt started screeching not too long ago, then one day I heard a loud noise under my hood and my buddy found a mystery bolt on the ground for me to later find out is my alternator bolt....ended up blowing out both belts and had to get a tow home, bought all new OEM belts, bolts and nuts!
Died about a mile down the street from my house!!
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps82525d06.jpg
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...pse93f3eda.jpg

Most Up to date shot:
Took out the front grill mesh to be plasti dipped black, installed PWJDM Quick Release Bumper fastners.
Just some more body work then its time to get this ugly bastard painted!!!
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps7bf01684.jpg
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...psf3a62ba6.jpg

As you can see I've got quite some work to do on the whole body of the car at this point lol, gotta resurface the passenger fender, fix middle of front bumper, fill gaps, install eye lids, fix gap in side skirts/remount, fill spots on trunk/rear bumper scuffs.

Im looking for an easy Evo trunk swap method to get the cleaner look, might just fabricate it myself though, nless I can find a decent priced lid!
does anybody know if they fit the same?

I hope you enjoy my thread!
Comments and suggestions are appreciated.